The 8,000 Mile Shortcut
Researching the Construction, Social, Political, and Economic Aspects of the Panama Canal
by Me. No joke. I wrote this last year
The Beginning
Many of the greatest achievements in history spar from genius, sense of pride, and accomplishment. Others are driven by profit and treasure. In 1513, Indian guides lead Spanish explorer Vasco Balboa across the isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean. After this voyage, adventurers in search of gold followed trails and rivers from the Caribbean/Atlantic side of the isthmus to the Pacific. During the 1500’s, Panama served as a base for Spanish conquistadors who stockpiled gold looted from native tribes there before shipping it to Spain. This in turn brought pirates to Panama. The earliest plan for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama dates back to 1524 when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through Panama that would make a faster trip for ships heading to and from Spain and Peru . In 1671, Welsh pirate Henry Morgan raided Panama City and burned it. For the next two centuries, huge sailing ships from Europe followed the Drake Passage, a water route around the tip of Argentina (Cape Horn), to reach the Pacific .
The discovery of gold in California in 1848 renewed interest in Panama as a short-cut from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Gold seekers who wanted to avoid the trip across the Rocky Mountains headed for Panama where the trail was a short 50 miles across. Yet, as travelers would come to realize, the disease-infested jungles of Panama was no safe place to travel. In 1855, the success of the transcontinental railroad connecting merchants in American from the east to west led to interest in a canal that would allow for ships to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Construction of the Panama Canal would become one of the most notorious engineering feats of the modern era. Along with physically altering the landscape and global economics, the construction changed the social and political landscape as well. The Panama Canal affected social, political, and economic aspects of society. The history of the Panama Canal is that of triumph and sacrifice, courage and perseverance. The quest for traveling ease, the conjoining of two major oceans, came with a high price tag of human life and a hefty price tag.
The French Failure
In 1848, Great Britain captured San Juan del Norte and announced its plans to build a Nicaraguan canal. The United States opposed this decision claiming this would be a violation of the Monroe Doctrine, which stated that European nations were not permitted to use armed forces to take over a new territory in the Western Hemisphere . To avoid war, the United States and Great Britain signed the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850 which stated that the two countries would share control over any canal build in Nicaragua, however the countries considered the treaty to cover canals built anywhere in Central America. Lieutenant Lucien Napoleon-Bonaparte Wyse chose the canal route after surveying the area in 1877 and 1878 by riding horseback for eleven days to Bogota, the capital of Colombia, where he persuaded the president to sign an agreement granting French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps’s company the exclusive right to build a canal across Panama.
Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps was determined to build the canal across Panama. He formed a company, raised money, and set out to build a sea-level canal from the Atlantic to Pacific. The first team of French engineers began work in January of 1881. de Lesseps’s plan involved digging a trench from Colon, on the Atlantic side, to Panama City, on the Pacific side. Workers were forced to trek through the jungle, dig through a 330-foot high mountain, and deal with the Chagres River .
The route de Lesseps’s saw as the ideal path had many problems; it passed through high mountains, it lead into the jungle where malaria, yellow fever, and other diseases thrived, and required more digging than any other path. Workers would have to dig out 78+ million cubic yards of soil and rock from the mountain side. Work was dangerous. Landslides were a deadly snag that workers endured; they would frequently occur wreaking havoc on the work site by filling in excavation areas around the mountain side that would take weeks to dig back out. Construction became difficult, French engineers tried to convince de Lesseps to build a lock canal instead so that workers wouldn’t have to dig all the way through the mountain at Culebra Cut
But it was too late; the project had already taken too long and cost too much for any sort of change to be induced. Stockholders refused to give the company more money. On May 15, 1889, de Lesseps bankrupt company halted work on the canal. The failed French effort cost $287 million .
The failure of the French to create the canal stretched beyond the engineering defeat. Laborers, engineers, and their families began dying. Twenty thousand workers died in Panama; mostly from yellow fever or malaria. Some died in rock slides, and botched dynamite blasts. Mosquitoes carried malaria and yellow fever from one victim to another. They had no screens to block the insects from entering the hospital, homes, and offices. Water buckets placed outside the hospital to keep ants away provided an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes .
The French suffered, losing many to the illnesses brought on by the less than ideal living environment of the Panama jungle. This failure of the French lead to the United States taking control over the situation in Panama, and for the better. The United States would go on to build the Panama Canal, the one the French and de Lesseps had dreamed of. However, the United States faced many problems in their quest to join the two oceans.
American Take Over
President Theodore Roosevelt wanted to build a canal across Central America. An agreement signed with Colombia in 1846 gave America the rights across the province of Panama. In 1899, Congress gave $1 million to the Isthmian Canal Commission to survey the final area for the canal. Many in support of the canal favored a passage through Panama, a province of Colombia. Panama was an isthmus, a narrow strip of land that joins two larger areas of land, with a distinct S shape. It provided the shortest route, only 50 miles.
Others favored a passage through Nicaragua, a route of 181 miles that ran from San Juan del Norte, at the mouth of the San Juan River, to Brito, on the Pacific side. Though longer than the Panama route, the Nicaragua passage was quicker for Americans traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast because it was closer to the United States . Americans supported the canal in Nicaragua because the country had a stable government, was friendly with the United States, and had less disease and a more suitable climate than Panama. The failure of the French in Panama made the Panama site seem less desirable as well. On November 18th, 1901, the United States and Great Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefort Treaty which terminated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. This new treaty gave the United States full control over construction, regulation, and management of a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific .
With the support of the American public, the President, Congress, and the Senate, the plans for a canal in Central America moved along. The French Panama Canal Company, eager to rebound from their total failure in Panama, offered to sell their interest in the Panama Canal to the United States for $40 million. Included in the offer the U.S. would receive ditch-digging equipment, railroad cars, two thousand plus buildings, the Panama Railroad, and all French rights to the strip of land that crossed the isthmus. The Spooner Act, named after Senator John C. Spooner, gave Roosevelt the go-ahead to build a canal in Panama. A report by George Morrison, a commissioner on the board to place the canal in Panama, and the French offer persuaded Congress and President Roosevelt to build in Panama. However, at this time in history Panama was part of Colombia. On August 12th, 1903, the Colombian Senate rejected the Hay-Herran Treaty which would have approved the transfer of French rights of the Panama Canal to the United States. The vote had passed earlier in the U.S. Senate 73 votes to 5 .
Residents in favor of U.S involvement began plotting separation from Colombia and establish their own government. U.S. naval ships coxed Colombians into returning to Bogota since Panamanians had said that U.S troops were headed to the area to fight, which was not true . Panamanians along with soldiers and rebels raised the new flag and proclaimed Panama a free nation. On November 6th, 1902, the U.S recognized Panama as a nation . The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty gave the U.S. full rights, power, and authority over 10 miles of land instead of the original 6 miles. With Panama and the United States in cooperation with each other, it was time to finally get back to work. French engineer Philippe Bunau-Varilla, who worked along with de Lesseps, wanted greatly to finish the canal. He was appointed the lead engineer position. A New York financier figured a Central America canal would save U.S. merchants $36 million a year in shipping costs.
Panama
The area in which Americans were set to build was less than ideal. Only 1/5th of Panamas land is habitable as jungles and rain forests occupy the other 4/5ths. Panama is a relatively small and poor country. The social make-up of the area is mostly composed of poor people. More than 40% of Panamanian people live in poverty. Colon, Panamas second largest city, struggles with high rates of crime and slum. More than half of its residents are unemployed . When the United States came to construct the canal, there had to be some rules and regulations implemented by the United States in order to succeed in Panama. A law was passed that said citizens of Panama could not step foot on soil within the Canal Zone – 530 sq. miles (1,372 sq. km). In order for the canal to function, engineers buried the homes of thousands to create Lake Gatun.
The social climate also changed as a result of the United States involvement. Unlike the French, by the early 1900’s, scientists knew mosquitoes spread disease. Engineers in June 1905 worked to kill mosquitoes. All houses in Panama City were sprayed, pools of water were drained, and screens were put up in all windows. This was crucial as workers from all over came to help with the construction of the canal. Fifty thousand black West Indians came to Panama seeking jobs. The best workers earned up to $1.50 per day. During construction, workers used locomotives, railroad cars, tugboats, dredging equipment, cranes, and steam shovels. People from the West Indies were eager to escape poverty and traveled to Panama where they could work. By this time, the death toll among workers had decreased dramatically.
Between 1913 and 1914, 414 workers died on the job. Compared to that of the years of 1907 and 1908, 1,273 workers died; a difference of 859 lives. Black workers had an average of 8.23 deaths per 1,000 workers while whites had an average of 2.06 deaths per 1,000 workers. During the 10 years American worked on the canal, 5,600 workers died due to accidents and disease .
The Impact
The ocean, similar to its ancient roots, will be and forever will be a vital trading tool. The shipping industry is still widely used by corporations all over the globe. The economic impact of the Panama Canal is enormous. The volume of trade passing through the free-trade zone at Colon, on the Caribbean side of the canal, has reached more than $5 billion annually . Unemployment, still high at 13%, has dropped since the U.S. invasion of Panama when 1/3 of Panama was unemployed. Tolls at the canal generate $600 million annually. Panama receives $100 million as its share yet almost all of the remaining income is used to maintain and operate the canal. If tolls are too high at the canal, shippers find it cheaper to travel the extra 7,872 miles (12,700 km) around Cape Horn. During the construction, contractors excavated 239 million cubic yards of terrain. Gatun Lake covers 163 square miles (422 sq. km). The waterway of the canal stretches 110 ft. wide (33 m) and 1,000 ft. long (304 m). Thirteen thousand ships pass through the man-made waterway each year, representing 5 percent of all world trade . When it opened in 1914, the world called it the greatest engineering project in history.
The Effect
The Panama Canal has had an impressive effect on the social, political, and economic aspects of society. The workers and residents of Panama have been forever affected. The canal has brought employment to an area that had seen high levels of unemployment; during construction, many found work on the canal. There was a lot of political influence both before, during, and after the building of the canal. Panama became a nation as a result of the United States interest in building a canal in Central America. The economics of the United States, Panama, and the world were changed drastically. World trade grew as a result of the shortcut through Panama. As of December 31st, 1999, The Panama Canal and the remaining military bases, schools, and administration buildings established by the U.S. became property of the Republic of Panama. The canal continues to be used, on average, the canal accommodates 50 ships a day. A ship usually takes about 8 to 10 hours to pass through the canal. The Panama Canal remains a landmark rich with social, economic, and political qualities. While some discoveries come from the quest for reward, the Panama Canal is a product of human ingenuity and accommodation; it remains a useful tool for sailors worldwide as one of the biggest shortcuts in the world.
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